Sussex Police have released CCTV footage showing a man staging a fall in a supermarket in a fraudulent attempt to claim £11,000 in compensation.

Louis Dempsey, 35, was jailed for nine months at Lewes Crown Court after he was convicted of a charge of fraud by making a false representation.

A Sussex Police spokesman said that the unemployed man of Mount Pleasant, Brighton, East Sussex, had attempted to claim the compensation from an Asda store in the city in November 2012 but CCTV cameras caught the incident and showed he was lying.

The spokesman said: “In November 2012 he claimed the compensation from Asda, for what he claimed were back and neck pain, headaches and emotional suffering, following a fall on a wet surface, caused by what he said was their negligence, in a shopping aisle at their Marina store in Brighton in June that year.

“However when the store sent the CCTV footage to his solicitor, nothing was heard from him for more than a year, but his claim remained in place.”

The spokesman said that Asda then informed Sussex Police and Dempsey was taken to court despite denying any wrong-doing in police interview.

Pc Lee Johnson said: “Dempsey claimed that he sustained the injuries when he slipped on a puddle of water which had been dripping from the store ceiling.

“But the whole CCTV episode shows him previously walking across that area and looking around, and others walking past with no problem at all.”